Ahimelech

Two men named Ahimelech appear in the David narratives. The first is a priest at Nob, son of Ahitub, who feeds the fugitive David with holy bread and gives him the sword of Goliath, and who is then put to death with his father's house under Saul's decree. The second is a Hittite among David's company who steps forward when David asks who will go down with him to Saul's camp.

The Priest at Nob

David comes to the priestly settlement at Nob and is met at the threshold by Ahimelech: "Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no man with you?" (1Sa 21:1). David covers his flight with a story about a king's commission and a meeting arranged with young men "to such and such a place" (1Sa 21:2), then asks for "five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present" (1Sa 21:3).

Ahimelech has consecrated bread under his hand and no common bread, and conditions its release on ritual purity: "There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women" (1Sa 21:4). David affirms the condition (1Sa 21:5), and "the priest gave him holy [bread]; for there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away" (1Sa 21:6). David then asks whether spear or sword is at hand, and Ahimelech produces the one weapon stored at the sanctuary: "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the valley of Elah, look, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if you will take that, take it; for there is no other but that here" (1Sa 21:9).

Inside this same scene the narrator plants the witness who will turn the encounter into a death-warrant: "Now a certain man of the slaves of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul" (1Sa 21:7).

Doeg's Report and Saul's Trial

When Saul, sitting under the tamarisk-tree at Gibeah, demands to know why none of his slaves has disclosed his son's league with David (1Sa 22:6-8), Doeg breaks the silence: "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub" (1Sa 22:9). Doeg adds the charge that Ahimelech "inquired of [the Speech of] Yahweh for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine" (1Sa 22:10).

Saul summons Ahimelech, "the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king" (1Sa 22:11). The king's accusation reuses Doeg's three counts — bread, sword, oracle: "Why have you⁺ conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of [the Speech of] God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?" (1Sa 22:13).

Ahimelech's defense pleads David's standing at court rather than denying the acts: "And who among all your slaves is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and commander over your bodyguard, and is honorable in your house?" (1Sa 22:14). He then disowns the charge of conspiratorial inquiry: "Have I today begun to inquire [by the Speech of] God for him? Be it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his slave, nor to all the house of my father; for your slave knows nothing of all this, less or more" (1Sa 22:15).

The king's sentence falls by name and sweeps the priestly line: "You will surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father's house" (1Sa 22:16).

The Slaughter at Nob and Abiathar's Escape

Saul's own guard refuses the order: "Turn, and slay the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me. But the slaves of the king would not put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh" (1Sa 22:17). Doeg, who carried the report, carries out the killing: "And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell on the priests, and he slew on that day eighty-five persons who wore a linen ephod" (1Sa 22:18). The destruction extends from the priests to the city itself: "And Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword" (1Sa 22:19).

One survivor of Ahimelech's house reaches David: "And one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David" (1Sa 22:20). Abiathar tells David what Saul has done (1Sa 22:21), and David accepts responsibility for the household: "I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have turned in every soul of your father's house. Remain with me, don't be afraid; for he who seeks my soul seeks your soul: for with me you will be in safeguard" (1Sa 22:22-23).

The Episode Recalled

The Nob shewbread incident is cited later in two places. Jesus appeals to it in a Sabbath dispute: "How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the showbread, which it is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?" (Mark 2:26). The named priest in the Markan recall is Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech who escaped Nob.

The superscription of Psalm 52 fixes the psalm to the same scene by name: "For the Chief Musician. Maschil of David; when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said to him, David has come to the house of Ahimelech" (Ps 52:1). The body of the psalm then turns on the deceitful tongue and the mighty man "who did not make [the Speech of] God his strength, But trusted in the abundance of his riches" (Ps 52:7).

The Hittite Companion

A second Ahimelech is named once, on the night David goes down to the camp where Saul lies sleeping: "Then David answered and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul at the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with you" (1Sa 26:6). The Hittite Ahimelech is paired with Abishai as one of two whom David addresses; the question of descent is answered by Abishai, and the Hittite is not named again.